That’s a huge incentive for me to book Delta. It’s also a huge incentive for me to book its most expensive fares between SFO and New York. Here’s what I mean by expensive:

>Mid-February round trip Business Elite fares between SFO and JFK are currently $2265. (Here’s a video that shows what Delta’s Business Elite looks like.)

>Full-coach (Y, B or M) round trip fares range from $1000 to $2200.

>The cheapest round trip coach fare (T) is just $250.

Let’s say I take Delta up on its offer and spend thousands on a ticket instead of just $250.

After the trip, I submit my expenses to my company or to my client and get reimbursed.

Then Delta sends me the $200 or $500 credit good for any flight through June 15, 2010.

To whom does that credit belong?

Me? I’d love to use it on a fare to Hawaii this spring.

Or does it belong to my company or my client? I’m sure they’d appreciate an extra $500 discount on my next business trip.

To help me with this ethical dilemma, I called on Henry Harteveldt, the principal travel analyst at Forrester Research here in San Francisco.

He said, “A company could legitimately claim that if it paid for a fare that qualifies for the rebate, then the credit should go to the company. However, the credit may be issued in the name of the traveler– and the credit is non-transferable. A company could mandate that if an employee uses company funds to buy a ticket that qualifies for the credit, that the credit should be used to defray the cost of any future company-paid travel for that employee.”

But, he concedes, “I don’t know whether corporate travel departments are equipped to monitor this. Clearly there is an issue of trust involved.”

Caleb Tiller, a spokesperson for the National Business Travel Association, a trade group that represents the interests of corporate travel managers, says that the question about who owns the credit is moot at companies with strong managed travel programs. He says, “Effective travel policies generally dictate that travelers either use a preferred carrier or purchase the lowest logical fare.”

That’s true at many large corporations that can afford to have staffers and agencies manage travel-buying decisions.

But there’s still a lot of leeway at smaller companies.

What would YOU do with the credit? What’s the RIGHT thing to do? I’d be very interested to hear your comments!